Bridge Documentation

This bridge has the honor of being the first Ohio bridge to be
featured on this website, and at the time it was a random discovery since it was not listed in any inventories.

This bridge is a beautiful pin connected Pratt through truss.
The bridge is composed of eight panels, and its built-up beams include v-lacing on vertical
members, on the sway bracing and under the top chord. Eyebars on the bridge are
the up-set style. Original simple hub-guard style lattice guardrails are present on the bridge.
The deck is a jack-arch design consisting of concrete with arched corrugated steel under. Portal bracing is a lattice
design. The bridge sits on concrete abutments. The bridge still has a fair
amount of silver paint left on it.

The design of the portal bracing and apparent ca. 1910 construction date of this bridge suggests that this bridge may have been built by the Massillon Bridge Company of Massillon, Ohio as this bridge's portal bracing resembles the design
they used in the first decade of the 20th Century.

This bridge would be nice to see moved to a different location and restored
for pedestrian use on a trail or in a park. This has been done with other Ohio bridges. Either way, something needs
to be done before a large willow tree that is half tipped over on the bridge
falls all the way down and crushes the bridge. The bridge is becoming very overgrown.

Information and Findings From Ohio's Historic Bridge
Inventory

The bridge carries an abandoned road over a stream in a sparsely developed, rural setting.

Physical Description

The 1 span, pin-connected Pratt thru truss bridge is traditionally composed with built-up compression members and eyebar or rod tension members. It has lattice portals and railings.

Summary of Significance

According to ODOT's environmental review files, this abandoned bridge is former SFN 2634724, which was a surveyed non-select bridge in 1981. The 1910 pin-connected Pratt thru truss bridge is later example of a
common type/design and has no distinctive details or features. The not eligible recommendation of the prior inventory remains appropriate.

Pratt trusses were undoubtedly the most popular truss design of the last quarter of
the 19th century and continued to be built into the 20th century, although eventually superseded in popularity by Warren trusses. The design, which initially was a combination of wood compression and iron tension members, was
patented in 1844 by Thomas & Caleb Pratt. Ohio has three covered bridges that use this combination configuration, but they are all modern reconstructions based on the Pratt patent. The great advantage of the Pratt over other designs
was the relative ease of calculating the distribution of stresses. More significantly, it translated well into an all-metal design in lengths of less than 200'. Significant surviving examples of all-metal Pratt trusses mostly date
to the last quarter of the 19th century, and they are found with thru, pony, and the less common bedstead configuration. Prior to about 1890, a variety of panel point connections were in widespread use (including bolts, cast-iron
pieces, and pins), but engineering opinion was coalescing around pins as the most efficient and constructible. Many of the connection details were proprietary and associated with individual builders or companies, and thus earlier
examples are generally taken to be technologically significant in showing the evolution of the design. Later post-1890 Pratt trusses show a progression toward less variation in their details such that by 1900 the design was quite
formulaic with few significant differences between the designs of various builders. This marked the end of the pin-connected Pratt's technological evolution and, in fact, it was soon waning and eclipsed in the highway bridge market
by more rigid, rivet-connected truss designs, particularly the Warren but also riveted Pratts. The transition to riveted connections, which happened even earlier with railroads than highways, was in no small part due to concerns
about stress reversals at the pins under heavier loads and improvements in pneumatic field riveting equipment in the early 1900s. In Ohio, Pratt truss highway bridges, whether pinned or riveted, were almost always built under the
auspices of counties and local units of government; the Pratt was not a standard design of the state highway department.

In Ohio, there are 185 Pratt trusses dating from ca. 1874 to 1945 with at least 60 dating prior to 1900
(Phase 1A, 2008). The technologically significant unaltered examples of pin-connected Pratt trusses for the most part date prior to 1900 and have documented or attributed builders and dates of construction and/or significant
connection or member details. Later post-1900 examples are less technologically significant. Significant unaltered examples of riveted-connected Pratt trusses date from ca. 1900 to 1915.

Bridge Considered Historic By Survey: No

Photo Galleries and Videos: CR-22 Bean Creek Bridge

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